Sheryl Sandberg: Racist Ad Targeting a Total Fail

Sheryl Sandberg says she’s personally offended by the anti-Semitic ads that were created on Facebook last week, and outlined new policies to prevent it from happening again, including more people-powered monitoring and the possibility of a reporting system for users.

“Hate has no place on Facebook—and as a Jew, as a mother, and as a human being, I know the damage that can come from hate,” Sandberg said in a Facebook post that went up Wednesday afternoon. “The fact that hateful terms were even offered as options was totally inappropriate and a fail on our part.”

Last week, Facebook was the subject of a ProPublica exposé that found ads could be targeted based on characteristics that included terms such as “Jew hater” and “how to burn Jews.” The terms likely got into the ad targeting system by Facebook users who put them into their own profiles.